In a column written for the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito responded to the charges leveled against him by ProPublica, a news nonprofit organization that masquerades as a news organization and that is funded by an array of leftist foundations.
ProPublica has an ongoing relationship with the Anchorage Daily News, which it financially has supported in recent years in support of “investigative” journalism.
The ProPublica charges that Justice Alito should have recused himself from cases involving any entity connected with billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer, and that Alito also failed to list certain items as gifts on his 2008 Financial Disclosure Report. These items relate to a fishing trip Alito took to Alaska.
Alito defended his participation in the Alaska fishing trip 15 years ago, against the allegations from ProPublica that his actions constituted a conflict of interest.
Justice Alito stated in writing that he has only engaged in minimal social interaction with Mr. Singer. Beyond a casual conversation during the fishing trip, he had spoken to Singer on a handful of occasions at large group events, without any discussion of Singer’s business activities or any court cases.
“My recollection is that I have spoken to Mr. Singer on no more than a handful of occasions, all of which (with the exception of small talk during a fishing trip 15 years ago) consisted of brief and casual comments at events attended by large groups. On no occasion have we discussed the activities of his businesses, and we have never talked about any case or issue before the Court. On two occasions, he introduced me before I gave a speech—as have dozens of other people. And as I will discuss, he allowed me to occupy what would have otherwise been an unoccupied seat on a private flight to Alaska. It was and is my judgment that these facts would not cause a reasonable and unbiased person to doubt my ability to decide the matters in question impartially,” Alito wrote today in the Wall Street Journal.
Alito wrote that the transportation to Alaska was not required to be reported, according to guidelines in effect at the time.
Alito said that accepting the plane seat imposed no cost on Singer, and saved the taxpayers money, since he did not have to fly with a U.S. Marshal, as he would have had he flown commercial.
The justice spent three nights in a “modest one-room unit” at the King Salmon Lodge, a rustic facility offering home-style meals. Alito wrote that the trip, characterized by ProPublica as lavish and exclusive, was misleadingly portrayed.
Alito also said his staff does a thorough check of parties involved in each case he handled, in line with Supreme Court Rule 29.6. Singer’s name did not appear in any of the corporate disclosure statements or the certiorari petitions, making it impossible for him to have known about Singer’s involvement.
The justice wrote that even if he had been aware of Singer’s connection to the entities involved in the cases, recusal would not have been required or appropriate. During his tenure on the Court, he has reviewed approximately 100,000 certiorari petitions, and it is not feasible for him or his staff to conduct extensive searches of the names of every single individual with a financial interest in every entity named as a party in the thousands of cases brought before them each year.
The instructions for completing a financial disclosure report, until recently, did not require reporting of personal hospitality extended for non-business purposes by individuals. Transportation facilities, such as the flight to Alaska in 2008, were not considered reportable gifts. Such a flight was a standard practice in 2008.
ProPublica is not so much a journalism entity, but a massive left-wing activist organization of writers. It started in 2007 with two employees and now has more than 100. It’s received funding from George Soros’ Foundation to Promote Open Society, and a host of other groups, such as the Sandler Foundation, which gave the founding gift to ProPublica, the Kerfuffle Foundation, and the Crankstart Foundation, the family foundation of Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz. Sequoia Capital is where crypto crook Sam Bankman-Fried got his start before he formed FTX. Sequoia Capital was one of his major investors. Bankman-Fried is accused of taking money from investors and gave it to Democrat candidates and causes, such as the Alaska Democratic Party and Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaign. Read about ProPublica’s funding sources at InfluenceWatch.org.
Photo credit: The above photo was obtained by ProPublica, but the organization did not reveal how it obtained the photo who who it belongs to. It shows Alito in the center, Singer on the right, and an unknown companion on the left.
Alito is the middle person in the photo.
Justice Alito, not “an unknown companion,” is in the middle of that photo.
Pro Publica is nothing but a democrat mouthpiece
I applaud ProPublica for doing the heavy lifting of investigative journalism about a fishing trip some 15 years ago. I believe that if more Journalists would be willing to grind this kind of grist, society would doubtlessly be better informed. It seems however that this story was a little too little and a bit too late to move the needle. What if there were a plethora of other stories that these Journalist could devote their efforts to? Off hand, the funding of the Penn Biden Center, seven figure bank transfers from foreign entities to the Biden Family and Mitch the gobbler McConnell’s handsome “inheritance” from his wife’s CHI-COM connected family. I’m certain that like the Alito story however there isn’t anything here to be concerned about, but what if I’m wong?
Good ideas, perhaps contact ProPublica with your ideas.
Translation: Move along folks. Nothing to see here.
Maureen, ProPublica certainly is aware of the stories I mentioned above as are other news companies and yet we don’t see them covering them. Why? Four years ago the NYT did an expose on how China produces Fentanyl and smuggles it across the southern border, what happened to that kind of reporting? Has the Fentanyl crisis gone away? Don’t think so. It seems that the news we get today is selective and propagandized and controlled by the corporations that want to move public opinion in their favor. Where are the journalist? That is the question Maureen.
I sent the Thomas Jack Jr., story to ProPublica and ADN a few years back thinking they’d care about the racial injustice inherent in his wrongful conviction. Their response? Crickets.
Running the story would have helped exposed corruption in Alaska’s judicial system. Guess they didn’t want to do that.
Bottom line: They care more about an hour spent in an airplane seat by a judge, than 13 years spent in a jail cell by an innocent man.
Big deal. It pales in comparison to the $$millions that Joe Biden stuck in his pockets while peddling his treasonous activities to our Chinese Communist enemies.
How much did Jared Kusner get from the Saudis?
$2 billion.
Maureen,
Go back and triple the dose of your meds. Time is short. Enjoy yourself a little bit and quit being consumed by hate. You’ll last longer without it.
Ellen-YOU are the one who brought up overdosing myself with my meds, and hate.
Who the heck is Jared Kusner?
Kinda telling – the shrewd ruthless guys who run SA thought Trump’s son-in-law was worth $2 bn; Biden’s son was relegated to do a deal with Ukrainians for less than 1% of Jared. Hunter is the crack whore of influence peddling.
Mr. Singer knew he had a “Fish On!” the Supreme Court right after that Chinook was landed.
How does Pro Publica financially support ADN? I’d like to know. I think everyone should know.
They give grants to newsrooms and supplement their work with reporting staff, which saves newspapers from having to pay reporters. Learn more here: ‘https://www.propublica.org/about/local-reporting-network
Welcome Patricia.
I don’t understand why this doesn’t bother people more? Really bother people. If there is anyone who should have to pass the red faced test or the “what if what you do is in the newspaper later” test it should be all of our judiciary. The Supreme Court should be the pinnacle of squeaky clean/free of potential taint. Period. No excuses about what rules were what when (which is open to interpretation). How about just don’t do it. Period. Pay for your own vacations, relatives tuition, fly on the govt dollar if it keeps you free of loyalty questions. Funny how “hospitality” arguments only applies to the super rich friends. This is why lifetime appts corrupt. It seems that some point all normal reason that applies to the rest of society dissipates or undergoes some warped attrition. And please, don’t give me because so and so did it, or what about investigating so and so. I don’t care if it’s a liberal or conservative justice. These stories should come out if they exist. Like we tell our kids, two wrongs don’t make a right. We should expect more and better from all that sit on this prestigious court.
What bothers me is Pro Publica having a financial arrangement with ADN. And how it masquerades as a news agency. And those shady characters it’s associated with.
SCOTUS should be required to provide disclosures the same as other Federal judges. It is difficult to have faith in a judicial system that has different rules for SCOTUS
Uhmm Frank, hate to break it to you but SCOTUS judges ARE federal judges.They are the chief honchos of the judicial branch, dealing with constitutional issues. They also provide disclosures, ergo this ginned up drama from years ago.
BTW I get really tired of you thinking that RBG or Sotomayor et al are clean as the wind-driven snow, especially when they claim that the constitution is archaic and we should look to foreign law for better judgments.
Sam Alito is the best Supreme Court Justice we have, He adheres to the constitution and is the most consistent in ruling in favor of the citizen’s rights. This idiotic crap that he should blow more government cash to go fishing just to please a bunch of muck raking, one sided socialist seditionists is just that, crap.
Not that anyone cares, but…
Every member of SCOTUS has done this. Every. Single. One.
Especially St. RGB.
More, before SCOTUS takes any case, they have an entire team dedicated to doing due diligence on the participants to make sure there are no conflicts of interest. Said team does everything short of FTC investigations. Alito has never been accused or implicated in anything remotely improper.
I won’t say this is a nothing burger because there is meat to this. The left is doing everything it can to undermine public confidence in SCOTUS by doing hit pieces like this.
The real target of this propaganda hit piece isn’t Alito. It’s Roberts and Kavanaugh, who are the most susceptible to public opinion.
It really is just that simple.
Alito should have known better. You can bet your a– that empty seat on the plane would NOT have been offered to an Average Joe! The optics on this are terrible. And no, I am not a fan of Pro Publica or NPR political propaganda.
These folks obviously I’ve never been to a fish camp. The amenities there are rustic at best. Just another smear campaign that won’t pan out.
Greg, I agree, however as evidenced by the photo, despite the Rustic Digs, you can hook some nice Chinook!
Nice Digs are for lousy Fishing Spots, when I was a kid, we had a 12′ jon Boat with a 3 hp Johnson and would take occasional naps on a gravel bar, accommodations be damned if we were hooking a couple of Kings!
Fishing wasn’t so great at the Yakutat Lodge, so we picked up the cell and called in for pizza. They even delivered to our gravel bar. And we are only paying $450 a night.
Revealing facts and encouraging ethical behavior are characteristics of classical liberalism, something that the ‘right’ at least talked about a couple decades ago. Now it is ‘leftist’ and engenders a lot of name calling.
Does a SCOTUS have to give up his personal life to hold the seat on the bench? Can’t a person take a fishing trip with friends or family? What’s the difference between taking a fishing trip or attending a bbq?
Pro Publica, not to be trusted about anything.
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